Investing

Comcast Claims Top Spot In List Of Resilient Stocks

By Victor Reklaitis, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY11/21/2012 05:37 PM ET

In a tough market like the current one, investors might want to give more attention to the IBD Big Cap 20 lineup.

This list features relatively steady, large-capitalization stocks. They generally don't provide the big advances that you'll see with some IBD 50 names, but they're also less likely to crater. Plus, many of them pay a dividend.

Comcast (CMCSA) stands at the top of the latest Big Cap 20 lineup, which appeared in Tuesday's edition. The cable giant pays an annual dividend of 65 cents a share, for an annualized yield of about 1.8%.

In terms of chart action, Comcast touched an all-time high on Nov. 2 in the wake of its third-quarter earnings report, which came out Oct. 26. It's been consolidating for about three weeks — holding not far from that high and in the vicinity of its 10-week moving average.

The Philadelphia-based company lifted Q3 earnings per share by 39%, a big gain and an acceleration from the prior quarter's 19% rise. Revenue grew 15%, ramping up from Q2's 6% increase.

The company has shown solid EPS growth for several quarters, and it sports impressive three-year and five-year EPS Stability Factors of 2 and 3, respectively. The best-possible grade is 0; the worst, 99.

Comcast has earned pretty good grades when it comes to its IBD Accumulation-Distribution Rating of C+ and its up-down ratio of 1.1. Note the stock has achieved seven straight quarters of increasing ownership by U.S. mutual and hedge funds, according to IBD data.

One key for Comcast is integrating and turning around NBC Universal. It bought 51% of that entertainment business from GE (GE) in January 2011. It's expected to acquire the rest of NBCU within a few years, perhaps as soon as 2014.

S&P analysts have said risks for Comcast include "turnaround hurdles for the NBC network," as well as intensifying competition in the pay-TV industry, which is facing challenges from Internet-delivered offerings like Hulu and Netflix (NFLX).

Meanwhile, Credit Suisse analysts have said that Comcast's cable business "continues to exhibit the best operating momentum in the industry today." Cable provided 65% of Comcast's revenue in 2011.